Rains did not drain sponsor gains: ICC

LONDON: The International Cricket Council has quashed all claims that brands and sponsors of the on-going cricket world cup in England are unhappy with the washed out games due to the rains.

ICC's general manager-commercial Campbell Jamieson said all the feedback which the global cricket governing body is getting from the brands with which it has partnered is that they are satisfied with what’s taken place so far. “The brands are happy about the reach and engagement with audiences of the world cup so that explains,” he said, addressing agroup of journalists at Nottingham.

There have been reports that several brands, which are either sponsoring the event or associated with it as advertisers, are unhappy with four cricket matches getting abandoned due to rains and couple of them getting curtailed. This includes the India versus New Zealand game which was called-off, while even Sunday’s high-stake India versus Pakistan game had curtailed overs due to rains at Manchester.

Brands such as Bira, Coca-Cola, MRF Tyres, Uber, Oppo and Britannia are ICC’s commercial partners for the world cup, while several others are running special promotions and advertisements around the event in the country with several hundred crores of marketing spent getting invested. The wash-out games have also been criticised on social media.

Jamieson said ICC never ever had reserve days in any cricket tournament except for the knock out finals. “Historically, not more than two games have been washed out in any cricket World Cup. If we were to have reserve days for every game, it will extend the event by probably another one month,” he said.

However, a senior official with a leading brand associated with the World Cup said while the company has taken a long-term view of the tournament, still it is a potential hit on the return on investment if high eye-ball games like those of India get washed out or curtailed.

(The reporter was in England at the invitation of Coca-Cola India)